Hotel Imperial

We chose this place for a quiet break close to the city center, and its central location right by the sea suited us perfectly. The people on staff were delightful and always friendly. We spent two days here and thought the food was excellent, with carefully prepared dishes and traditional flavors. Thanks to everyone for making our vacation so special.

The island of Ischia is beautiful and welcoming, and I don’t think its people are generally bad. Incidents like ours are fortunately rare. We stayed with two other couples for a supposedly relaxing weekend on June 24, 2022. Our friends were just as shocked as we were when they came to see our room. We were assigned room 102 downstairs, away from the rooms on the upper floors. As soon as we opened the door, we noticed a strong musty smell. We hadn’t even unpacked before we went back to reception to complain about the hygiene. Before the receptionist could answer, a woman around 60 shushed them and shouted that the room had always been rented and the hotel was full. We stayed so we could spend the weekend with our friends. At 4:10 a.m., I got up to use the bathroom and the smell was horrible, made worse by the lack of air circulation. I opened the front door and window to air the room. My wife was awake and wide-eyed, warning me about a cloud of mosquitoes. We spent the remaining hours wrapped in sheets so the room was bearable enough to breathe. The next night was the same. When I raised the problem again, reception answered calmly but mockingly. On Sunday, I was finally free of the nightmare. A four-star hotel? Maybe four stables. It seemed to me that the owner had assigned the stars without a hotel commission. I blame myself for not reading earlier reviews, and even for not calling an ambulance. This isn’t a movie, it was a cruel reality. Come visit the island, but our experience was awful.

We booked through an agency in Ischia for a vacation in 2020. The mini-fridge didn’t work, and the television was a 14-inch CRT with no outlet, so we couldn’t watch it. We called the agency, which immediately contacted the hotel. My husband and I were verbally attacked by the owner. Breakfast was brought to our room from Dolce Sosta, and the cappuccinos were cold. One morning the milk was rancid, like the croissant. I won’t say more about that. There was no butter or jam. What stuck with me most was the promised strawberry jam. The niece, the brother’s daughter, told us every day she had a surprise for us, but it never happened. The surprise was supposed to be strawberry jam.

What a terrible stay. The place was dirty and badly maintained, and the air conditioning in our room wasn’t working on the first day. We didn’t have hot water either, and had to complain several times before it was restored. The food was old, badly cooked, and awful. Stay away. Even two stars would be too much.